Paradigm Shift
by Jenna Riedell
Summary: Silver collapses from fatigue in the middle of his search for the Iblis Trigger. Amy gets paranoid and protective. Silver gets a little introspective. Blaze is still nowhere to be found. Implied Silver/Amy.


Exhaustion hits shortly after returning from the desert, and Silver collapses. It's his own fault, he supposes. After all, he's been running for almost two days straight, with less than an hour of sleep, and he's been near constantly using his powers the entire time. He overdid it – that's all there is to it.

He's not entirely sure what's happening – there's something around his waist holding him upright, and his arm is slung almost haphazardly over someone's shoulders. It takes too long for him to realize that it's Amy that's practically dragging him across the city. She's babbling incessantly, but Silver's brain is working too slowly for him to process much of what she's saying.

His head hurts. He feels awful. He wants Blaze.

Amy helps him sit on a bench, and he falls forward for a moment before she catches him, her hands tightly clutching his shoulders, and forces him to lie down. He dozes off, and the next thing he knows, Amy's propping him up and pressing a water bottle to his mouth. A few sips, and his head clears slightly. When he's done, he turns his head away slightly, and the sudden movement causes some water to spill and dribble down his chin. When he straightens up, every inch of his body seems to groan and whine in protest. "Thanks," he says, and his voice comes out as a pathetic croak. "I'm fine now."

"Are you sure?" Amy asks, her eyes narrowed in concern. Her hand is still around his shoulders, like she's afraid he'll disappear if she lets go.

"Y-Yeah," Silver answers as he carefully swings his legs out and places his feet on the ground. The sudden movement makes him feel dizzy for a moment, but the vertigo passes quickly enough. It occurs to him that Blaze never once bothered to take care of him like Amy is now, despite the fact that she'd usually stay by his side whenever he's too fatigued to do much of anything.

Blaze isn't here now, but she has to be. If she's gone, then that means Silver is…

All Silver can do is stare downward. If Blaze were here, she'd know exactly what to do. She wouldn't be so lost and helpless and scared and—

—and Amy takes his hand in both of hers and pulls him to his feet. He staggers a bit and almost falls, but Amy somehow manages to steady him. "You need to rest, Silver," she says sharply, and for a minute, her voice sounds almost like Blaze's. She doesn't say a word about how strange and jumpy he probably looks right now, and he can't be more grateful. "Well…" She taps her foot and frowns contemplatively.

"I'm okay," Silver says. "I can keep going."

He isn't prepared for her to suddenly glare harshly at him. "No!" They start walking, and Silver still can't go for very long without stumbling. Maybe it's the fatigue, but all he can think about is how _different_ Amy is from Blaze. Amy is vibrant and expressive and dynamic, while Blaze is calm, collected, and purposeful. If it were Blaze here instead of Amy, he'd be getting a quiet, resigned "You brought this on yourself" instead of a lecture about how he'll probably get himself killed one day, if he keeps pushing himself past his limits.

Paradoxically, it makes him miss Blaze even more, but he simultaneously doesn't want Amy to ever leave.

* * *

He has a dream about his own death. It's nothing new, but that doesn't make it any less terrifying – he's back in his own time, fighting Iblis alone. Blaze is nowhere to be found. Something goes wrong – in this particular dream, it's that he gets stuck under some chunk of debris Iblis shot at him, and all of a sudden, he's falling into a fiery abyss – but the circumstances are usually different with each recurrence.

He wakes up seeing Blaze's face hovering over his own – only she's so translucent that he can see through her forehead. "You're not real…" The accusation seems to claw its way out of his throat as he brings the covers over his head. He's breathing too fast, and everything hurts.

"Silver," Blaze says. Something soft falls on his arm, and he flinches, curling in on himself. "Silver!"

It feels like someone's slamming an axe into his skull. The covers are suddenly pulled off him, and everything is too cold. Someone's hands are clasping his wrists firmly, pinning them to the bed so that he can't move his arms. "Wake up!" It takes him a while to realize that it's Amy who's been calling his name all this time. Amy. Not Blaze.

Somehow, he manages to jerk Amy's hands off of his as he sits up. Pressing a hand against his throbbing temples, he breathes deeply for a few moments to force himself to calm down. "Are you okay?" Amy asks, her voice filled with more concern than Silver has ever seen in his life.

"Y-Yeah," Silver answers. His whole body is shaking. "S-Sorry…" He sighs, and the tremors slowly stop. "We should keep looking for—"

"No, we shouldn't," Amy says, shaking her head. "You need your rest."

"I'm okay," Silver says, even though he'd much rather go back to sleep.

Amy shakes her head again. "If you keep pushing yourself like this, you could die." There's something about the way her gaze momentarily shifts away from his that tells him that she believes every word of what she's saying. "Just… we can go tomorrow, okay?"

Silver almost falls asleep again when he flops back down on the bed. It's the nicest bed he's ever slept on – nothing like the hard cots from his own time – and he's once again more than grateful that Amy's letting him stay in her own hotel room. "You probably think I sound crazy…" Amy says quietly. "See, one of my friends… he has powers, too, but they're not like yours. About two years ago, he was… working on something, and he kept using his powers. But I think he used them too much, and he… he almost _died_. We thought he _did_ die, but then we found out later that he was totally fine." Her wistful expression quickly morphs into a smile. "So yeah. Sorry if I sound too paranoid."

Silver closes his eyes. "It's fine," he says, and means it.

* * *

Amy doesn't force him to rest the next day, but Silver can tell that she's deliberately slowing the investigation down for his sake. They spend more time exploring the city, eating food from various stands, and talking than actually searching for blue hedgehogs.

One of the more popular topics of discussion is the blue hedgehog Amy's searching for. His name is Sonic, and Amy makes him out to be some great paragon of all that is right in the world. And during Amy's verbose explanations of Sonic, Silver can only smile bitterly, because the blue hedgehog _he's_ searching for is obviously so much worse than the person Amy's in love with.

A not-so-small part of him hopes that they never find Sonic or the Iblis Trigger, so that he and Amy can just search together, forever – but then he reminds himself that this isn't his own time, and that, sooner or later, he'll have to leave Amy and go back to his own time. But if he goes back, no one will be waiting for him – especially not Blaze, because she… He doesn't want to think about it.

It takes him a moment to realize that he's stopped walking altogether. Amy's standing in front of him, looking concerned. "Are you okay?"

Silver averts his eyes and swallows hard. "Amy, there's… Th-There's something I have to tell you."

She looks more worried than skeptical. "Okay…"

He takes a deep breath. "I…" And then, off in the distance, he sees a flash of blue. "Wait a minute…" He takes off running, and he can't bring himself to feel bad about how he probably looks to Amy. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Blaze nodding to him.

And for a moment, it looks like his future is going to be saved a lot sooner than he originally thought.

Silver shivers as he and Blaze stand with their feet buried in snow, and his thoughts drift back to the desert he and Amy explored just one day ago. If it were Amy here instead of Blaze, there'd be a hand on his shoulder, or his hand clasped tightly in hers. It makes his chest hurt, thinking about how much he misses that.

But Blaze doesn't dare touch him – she never once did. "Silver," she says sharply.

"I know," he replies weakly. He takes off running, and Blaze is always just a few paces behind him, even though he knows that she can run much faster.

He wonders if Blaze will still be there once he saves his future. When an obvious "no" comes along, he stubbornly shoots it down.

* * *

_I once read an interesting theory regarding Blaze's role in Sonic 2006 on tumblr. Mephiles never acknowledged her when speaking to Silver. Considering that this game supposedly takes place after Sonic Rush, Sonic's team _should_ have noticed when they saw her and Silver talking to Mephiles. She's barely plot-relevant, aside from becoming Iblis's vessel at the very end. There aren't any sidequests for her. The only person who ever talks to her is Silver, and she always watches him intently when he's interacting with people he doesn't quite trust. Finally, she lives in a world two hundred years in the future, even though she's supposed to know Sonic. _

_There is no Sonic 2006-Sonic Rush Blaze paradox because _Blaze doesn't exist in Sonic 2006 to begin with_. She's a figment of Silver's imagination. Picture this – you don't see anyone else in Crisis City besides monsters, the player characters, and Mephiles. You _could_ attribute that to it being an action stage, or whatever it's called, but what if the lack of people around means that Silver is, quite literally, the only living thing left? He's so completely in denial about it that his mind concocts this imaginary friend who doubles as his own conscience. This explains why he trusted Mephiles so easily – he knows Mephiles isn't to be trusted, but at this point, he's willing to do just about anything to save himself from being the sole survivor of the apocalypse. Also, Mephiles being there means that he's no longer the only living person, which is always a plus. Not to mention, the only time Blaze isn't there with Silver is when he's with Amy – this could indicate him finally coming to terms with reality._

_Unfortunately, I read this theory a long time ago, and I don't remember who actually wrote the theory. If you happen to know this person, or, even better, if you _are_ this person, please, PLEASE let me know._

_And with that, please review!_


End file.
